What do graphic artists/publishers charge?

February 27, 2009 4:29 PM

How much should I charge for my services? My local car dealership asked me to produce a newsletter for his 4000 customers. I've been working in another industry for 30 years and am exploring doing my life's passion-graphic arts, for work. I do not know what to charge for this. He has seen my work and loves it. Any suggestions? An hourly charge? Per diem? Per copy?
posted by ~Sushma~ to work & money (13 answers total)

I know nothing about your side of the charging, but if I were a car dealership, I would want a flat fee or an hourly with a damn good estimate of how long it will take. He needs to budget. Who is doing the mailing and postage, etc?
posted by JohnnyGunn at 5:05 PM on February 27, 2009

With some caveats, I understand this book is very useful: The Graphic Artists Guild Handbook: Pricing & Ethical Guidelines.

I've only take a brief look through it personally, but several of my former professors had mentioned it in my design-related classes.
posted by HonorShadow at 5:11 PM on February 27, 2009

I don't have an exact answer, but from handing my company's newsletter here are a few things to consider:

- Will all the content be print-ready or are you going to have to edit other people's crappy writing?
- If successful, will there be future newsletters on a regular basis? You might want to charge more for the initial set-up and less for future installments, since if you follow the same layout/format it should be a little easier/faster in the future.
posted by radioamy at 5:31 PM on February 27, 2009

Per hour per hour per hour. There is no other way than to bill per hour. Flat fees lead to arguments over the number of change requests, as well as to endless change requests. Charging per copy would just be silly, because you do the same amount of work no matter how many copies he has printed. Bill by the hour.

As for how much, that's a question of how much your time is worth to you, adjusted by how much you think the client might be willing to pay. The going rate for graphic design work ranges from $20/hour to $200/hour, which is to say there is no going rate for graphic design work.
posted by ook at 7:35 PM on February 27, 2009

He's going to pay like 25 cents apiece, bulk mail, to deliver them. If you're writing it, with
content specified by the the client, you should charge no less than $500, if you don't
have to do any stuffing, stamping or mailing.
And that might be a little low. But it's a car dealership. Your best work is likely to be wasted
on their audience.
posted by the Real Dan at 11:17 PM on February 27, 2009

Seconding HonorShadow. I own that, and it'll definitely be helpful to you if you're planning to make this a job.
posted by ocherdraco at 12:05 AM on February 28, 2009

Well, they're using you because you're either 'exactly' what he wants (that means zero revisions, right?) or that they figure you're 'good enough' and cheaper than a professional.

Why not run an ad on craigslist, to figure out what the market will bear - and mark that up at least 20%. At least you'll know what the bottom of the market charges.
posted by filmgeek at 6:39 AM on February 28, 2009

Charging per copy would just be silly, because you do the same amount of work no matter how many copies he has printed.

It's not silly. I'm a photographer and commercial photo jobs are billed as a fee + 'usage' which is relative to how big of a print run or wide of an audience the image is going to see. The more value your client gets out of it the more you should be compensated for your expertise. Charging for your time seems silly because as you get better at doing your job you would get paid less for the same amount of work or arriving at the solution faster than someone who doesn't know what they're doing.

(I realize designers aren't usually licensing copyrights like photographers - and that a car dealership newsletter is probably not the appropriate job to bill like that - but hourly is not the only way to charge for creative work and is not as uncommon or crazy as you implied)
posted by bradbane at 1:29 PM on February 28, 2009

The purists might disagree, but since it's a small mailing for a small business I think you just have to consider the guy's budget. And make your part of their costs fit.

If you're in the USA, it's going to cost them about 80c per copy to print, fold, address and bulk mail a newsletter. Say you added 10c to that ? Or 20c? That sound bearable.

And if you're good and the mailing expands - you earn more.

How about you contract with them to do the copy, production and arrange mailing too - for a fixed $1 per copy?
posted by Xhris at 1:43 PM on February 28, 2009

i am an art director working in new york city. here are my two cents:

how much a graphic designer gets paid depends on where you are located (new york city rates are much different than middle-of-no-where rates), what your client's budget is and how willing you will be to compromise yourself to fit his/her budget. i have found that the graphic artist's guild handbook can be WAY OFF if you're working out of cleveland ohio vs new york city.

i think since you're just beginning your best bet is to ask him what his budget is and then figure out what you are willing to give him for his budget. since he might not be used to buying design services this number might be very low. which is fine, if you're just a newbie anyway.

so say his budget is $X. then figure out how long you're going to need to do this project. say you think you'll need about 20 hours to finish everything (design and production). remember to pad your hours a little bit to deal with extra design changes (they will always inevitably come up). then divide your hours by his budget and voila-- this is what you would be working under an hourly rate as, for this project. if this ends up being $10/hr... well... reconsider his budget or what you want to put into this project. the less hours you spend the more money you will make. so maybe if his budget is only $X maybe that can only afford your design services but not production (which means you can give him the file and he can go run 4000 copies himself and mail them himself). do not include the price of the copy. that is additional. if he wants you to do everything INCLUDING production do not forget to charge him for the hours it takes you to call for quotes, run back and forth to the printer, etc etc. production is a completely different side of the coin and you should be compensated accordingly.

this is usually how i figure out the price for a smaller project like this. working like this sometimes makes it easier to work with clients with a smaller budget but whose work i would like to win over because its interesting work.

ook has a good point about charging per hour. but sometimes its hard to guess per hour and sometimes you'd just like to do the job anyway. and if you're new, it can be hard to guess your hourly rate.

its important if you decide to work within his budget and charge 1 flat fee to TELL THEM AHEAD OF TIME that they only have a specific number of rounds of revisions. i usually do 3 rounds and then thats it. no more changes without extra hours being tagged on.
posted by modernsquid at 6:47 PM on February 28, 2009

oh and dont forget taxes. you should be taking 1/3 off of this for taxes. so if youre hourly rate for this project (to work within his budget) is going to be $10-- you'd actually only be getting about $8/hr. working as an independant contractor the taxes won't be taken off for you, you'll need to just take 1/3 off and put it into a savings account and then wait for tax time. put it into high yield so you can make money while its waiting.

:cD
posted by modernsquid at 6:50 PM on February 28, 2009

sorry one last thing

photography/illustration-- yes its normal to charge per usage. but not really for design at least in the area that i am in (ny, working in advertising mostly).

for design services its usually per hour or flat fee.

production however, is something else entirely. folding and stuffing 4000 newsletters into envelopes is different than folding and stuffing 200 newsletters and you should be compensated accordingly. but then again: folding and stuffing isn't really graphic design.
posted by modernsquid at 6:55 PM on February 28, 2009

Consider my comment amended to "for the type of work you're doing, there is no other way than to bill per hour;" bradbane is correct that in different creative industries there are different norms.

I'll stand by saying that a flat fee is just begging for trouble, however. If you do go with a flat fee, be very clear up front about how many revisions and change requests you'll accept without additional charges.
posted by ook at 8:57 AM on March 2, 2009